As digital textbooks inexorably replace traditional printed media, and online social resources such as discussion boards supplement classroom instruction, teachers and publishers are finding new opportunities for engaging students. Students with access to digital materials may annotate a shared digital version of a class text or videos, ask and answer each other's questions, and interact with the teaching staff while reading. The advantages are substantial: instead of waiting days until office hours to get past a conceptual roadblock, students can ask a question at any time and often get a response within minutes. Student motivation is enhanced through online interactions that enable them to share interest and knowledge.
In increasing number of classrooms, when students are given reading material as homework assignments, it is in digital format and they are allowed to highlight a passage and add a comment or question. Other students (and the teaching staff) can then see this immediately and can answer questions or add their own comments (in an interaction that looks roughly as it does on Facebook). Students stumped about some problem can easily address it, whatever the hour, if other students are reading at the same time or soon after. When students are assigned videos, they may now be able to annotate the timeline, with comments and interactions following.
Research has shown that students who engage in high levels of meaningful online discussion using annotation systems have higher normalized learning gain scores than students who participate just to fulfill basic requirements. Moreover, providing students with incentives to complete the readings thoughtfully and feedback on their annotations helps ensure that students do the assigned readings on time. Overall, when integrated properly into the classroom experience, annotations and their evaluation contribute meaningfully to student learning.
One bar to effective exploitation of online resources and discussion forums is hesitation to initiate a discussion. Students may be chary of being the first to post a comment or question, and annotations that merely request clarification or an answer may not contribute to robust discussion. Motivating students not only to post annotations but to initiate meaningful online discourse and debate remains a challenge. Thus, there is a need for techniques and systems for the encouragement and evaluation of annotations during participants' use of online educational resources without significant increase to the workload of the instructor and/or other course managers.